BARBARY STATES. 



831 



little aid from the characters. Boys at school have a board and piece of chalk, with which 

 they write ; and they instructed each other long before the lime of Lancaster. 



21. No art but that of music receives encouragement. There are some pretty airs, 

 and the common instruments are a rude hautboy, the pipe, tabor, mandoline, and drum. The 

 sciences, which anciently formed the glory of the Moors, are now extinct in this region ; phi- 

 losophical instruments of excellent construction are still seen, but they are shown only as 

 curious relics, and even medicine is practised by physicians, whose skill reaches little further 

 than to dress a wound. 



22. Religion. This is the Mahometan. In Barbary saints are common, and to be one 

 is a kind of profession or trade. There is at Fez a religious foundation, for the support and 

 burial of storks and cranes, which are supposed to be animated by the souls of men. The 

 marriages are attended with rejoicing ; the bride is carried home in a cage, placed on a mule 

 attended by music. Four wives are allowed, but polygamy is not general. Divorces are 

 easy to be obtained by the husband ; and the wife is entitled to one ; the third time she may 

 be cursed by her husband. P^or the first curse, he must pay her eight ducats, and a rich dress 

 for the second. A neglect to provide for the wife, is also a ground for divorce. At burials, 

 a concourse attends, and the women howl fearfully. Some are hired to tear their faces, and 

 utter lamentations. The dead are dressed as when they lived, and the tombs and graves are 

 neatly kept. 



23. Laws. The administration of justice is in none of these States in favor of die innocent. 

 The maxim seems to be, that it is better that the innocent should suffer, than the guilty escape. 

 The cadis are the judges, and the execution immediately follows conviction, or sentence. 

 Small ofFences are punished by the bastinado ; great ones by burning alive, which is chiefly 

 inflicted on Jews and Christians ; and by impalement and tenter hooks, on the Moors. The 

 tenter hooks project from walls, and the culprit is thrown upon them, where he drops from 

 one to another, and sometimes lingers in agony for hours. In impalement, a stake is thrust 

 longitudinally through the body. The western Moors sometimes punish crimes by tying the 

 criminal between two boards, and sawing him asunder lengthways, beginning at the head. 

 Women are sometimes tied in a sack and drowned. At Algiers the post of executioner is 

 one of honor ; at Morocco it is a dangerous and infamous office. In the former city, this 

 officer of the law may aspire to a place in the state.* 



* " I saw a great concourse of soldiers, and on inquiring 

 the cause, found tliat an e.xecution was about to lake place, 

 and some malefactors were at the same lime to be maim- 

 ed. The governor arrived at this moment, and the pris- 

 oners were driven in with their hands tied ; tlie order for 

 punishment was read by the cadi or judjro, and the cul- 

 prits told to prepare themselves, which they did by say- 

 ing. Hi el Jlllah Sited a Mohammed llasoid JlHak and 

 worshipping. Thoy were then made to sit down in a 

 line upon their legs on the ground ; a butcher then came 

 forward with a sharp knife in his hand ; he seized tlie 

 first in the line on the left, by the beard, with his left 

 hand ; two men were at the same time holding the pris- 

 oner's hands; the butcher began cutting very leisurely 

 with his knife round the neck, (which was a very thick 

 one,) and kept cutting to the bones until the flesh was 

 separated ; he then shoved the head violently from side 

 to side, cutting in with the point of the knife to divide 

 the sinews, which he seemed to search out among the 

 streams of blood, one by one ; he finally got Ihe head off 

 and threw it on a mat that was spread to receive the mu- 

 tilated limbs of the others. There were eight tnore, who 

 were sentenced to lose a leg and an arm each, and nine 

 to lose only one arm. The butcher began to amputate the 

 legs at the knee joint, by cutting the flesh and sinews round 

 with his knife, which he sharpened from lime 1o time on 

 a stone ; he would then part the joint by breaking it short 

 over his knee, as a butcher would part the joint in the 

 leg of an o.x. Having in this manner got off Ihe leg, and 

 thrown it on the mat, he proceeded to take off the arm at 

 the elbow, in the same leisurely and clumsy manner; he 

 seemed, however, to improve by practice, so that he carv- 

 ed off the hands of the last eight at their wrists, in a very 

 short time, — this done, they next proceeded to take up 

 the arteries, and apply a plaster, which was soon accom- 

 olished by dipping the stumps into a kettle of boiling 



pitch that stood near, or something that had the same 

 appearance and smell. Is not this last circumstance an 

 improvement in surgery They tlien carried the lifeless 

 trunk and mutilated bodies, with tlie head and other 

 limbs, to the market ; the head and limbs were carried on 

 a mat by six men, who vi'ere making as much sport as 

 possible, for the spectators ; the bodies were thrown across 

 jackasses, and they were exposed in the most public part 

 of the market place, nearly the whole day. The two 

 governors, and oilier officers who were present during the 

 execution of the sentence, were silting on the ground 

 next to the wall, appearing quite unconcerned, and were 

 conversing gayly on other subjects. The Moors, who 

 came from mere curiosity, did not show the least mark 

 of disapprobation, or any signs of horror; they jested 

 with the butcher, who seemed highly gratified with the 

 part he was acting. 



" I now asked Jlais bel Cossim, who attended me, con- 

 cerning the mode of procuring an executioner, &c., «&c. 

 He told nie, that when an order came to execute or main 

 any culprits, it generally embraced several at the same 

 time, so as to make but one job of it; that the butchers 

 were called upon by the alcayd or governor, and forced 

 to find one out of their number to do this work ; that the- , 

 then made up a purse agreeably to a rule, made among 

 themselves in such cases ; that is, two and a half ducats 

 per man for cutting off heads, and two ducals per man 

 for maiming ; (two and a half ducats make one dollar, or 

 forty cents per ducat ;) they then queslion each other lo 

 know who will accept of the monev. and do the job ; if 

 no one appears wilHng, they cast lots, and the one on 

 whom it falls, is obliged to undertake it. This man is pro- 

 tected by the governor for twenty-four hours after the 

 execution, when he is left to lake care of himself, brave 

 the public odium, and the revenge of the friends of the 

 sufferer, or else to fly ; he generally goes off the first 



